NATO, partners aim to boost Kyiv's air defence after Russian strikes - Reuters

BRUSSELS, Oct 12 (Reuters) - More than 50 countries stitchery connected the sidelines of a NATO gathering successful Brussels connected Wednesday to sermon bolstering Ukraine's aerial defence, 2 days aft Russian missiles rained connected Kyiv and different cities crossed the country.

The gathering successful Brussels is the archetypal large NATO gathering since Russia annexed 4 occupied Ukrainian regions, began a partial mobilisation and issued veiled atomic threats - moves the Western confederation has classified arsenic a wide escalation of the warfare that started with Moscow's penetration of Ukraine connected Feb. 24.

Two days aft Russian aerial rocket strikes killed 19 radical successful Ukraine and knocked retired powerfulness supplies crossed the country, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged allies to nonstop much aerial defence systems to Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said the "horrific, indiscriminate attacks" showed wherefore this was truthful important.

"We request antithetic types of aerial defence - short-range, long-range, aerial defence systems to instrumentality ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, antithetic systems for antithetic tasks," helium told reporters connected accomplishment for the meeting.

Allies besides needed to standard up the proviso of aerial defence systems to assistance Ukraine support adjacent much cities, helium said.

On Tuesday, Ukraine received the archetypal of 4 IRIS-T SLM aerial defence systems that Germany had promised to supply, a German defence ministry root said.

A elder U.S. defence official, speaking connected information of anonymity, said Germany's IRIS-T was different motion of the committedness to supply aerial defences to Ukraine, predating Russia's latest rocket fusillade against the country.

"Again this is simply a horrible acceptable of circumstances, what's occurred," the authoritative said. "But the information that Russia has this capableness and is consenting to usage that capability, including against civilian infrastructure and civilian targets, is not a surprise."

Stoltenberg called Russia's rocket attacks a motion of weakness, showing President Vladimir Putin was moving retired of alternatives arsenic his forces were losing connected the battlefield.

Moscow, which calls its actions successful Ukraine a "special subject operation" to destruct unsafe nationalists and support Russian-speakers, has accused the West of escalating the struggle by supporting Kyiv.

Ukraine accuses Russia of an unprovoked imperialist onshore grab, 3 decades aft the Moscow-led Soviet Union broke up.

NATO VIGILANT ON RUSSIAN NUCLEAR STANCE

NATO defence ministers volition archetypal conscionable with partners of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a assemblage established connected the inaugural of the United States to support up arms supplies to Kyiv. Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov volition besides instrumentality part.

The NATO ministers past footwear disconnected their talks with a meal earlier Thursday's archetypal league connected atomic planning.

Stoltenberg said the confederation had not seen immoderate changes successful Russia's atomic posture.

"But we volition stay vigilant, we volition proceed to show intimately due to the fact that the atomic threats, the atomic rhetoric, and the veiled threats from Russia are unsafe and reckless."

NATO volition clasp its yearly atomic preparedness exercise, dubbed "Steadfast Noon", adjacent week, with grooming flights for combatant jets susceptible of carrying atomic weapons based successful Europe and enactment planes. No unrecorded weapons are used.

NATO ministers are besides owed to sermon protecting captious infrastructure, a request that has go much urgent aft attacks connected Nord Stream pipelines moving nether the Baltic Sea, though it remains unclear who was down the explosions.

On Wednesday, Polish relation PERN said it had detected a leak successful 1 pipeline successful the Druzhba system that carries lipid from Russia to Europe. It said this was astir apt owed to an accident.

NATO warned Moscow connected Tuesday that it would conscionable attacks connected allies' captious infrastructure with a "united and determined response".

Stoltenberg pledged to boost the extortion of captious infrastructure, saying NATO had already doubled its beingness successful the Baltic and North Seas to much than 30 ships supported by craft and undersea activities.

Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Philip Blenkinsop; Additional reporting by John Chalmers; editing by Mark Heinrich

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